Kirsten Niehuus on her ideas and plans as president of the German Federal Film Board (FFA)

“It’s been something of a homecoming,” says Kirsten Niehuus about being elected as the president of Germany’s national film funding agency, the German Federal Film Board (FFA), last autumn.

“The FFA and me go back a long way,” she notes. “My first connection was in 1988 as a trainee lawyer during my Law studies at the University of Hamburg and I subsequently became the head of the fund’s legal affairs department.”

Then, between 1995 and 1998, Niehuus headed up the legal affairs department of the producer-distributor Senator Film before returning to the FFA in 1999 to become its Deputy Director, a post that she held until 2004.

A new chapter in her professional career then began with the appointment in November of that year as Managing Director responsible for film funding at the regional film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB).

In the more than two decades at the head of this fund until her retirement at the end of June 2025, Niehuus had been instrumental in de­veloping the Berlin-Brandenburg region into a leading hub for national and international film and TV production.

Productions as diverse as INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, TONI ERDMANN, BABYLON BERLIN, TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and SCHOOL OF MAGICAL ANIMALS are just a handful of the titles backed by MBB during her watch.

Any thoughts that Niehuus might spend her retirement away from the hustle and bustle of the film industry were quickly dispelled when she revealed in interviews last summer that the German Producers Alliance (Produktionsallianz) had nominated her as its representative on the FFA’s 36-member Administrative Board.

And she then put her name forward to become the successor to the former State Minister for Culture and the Media Bernd Neumann whose term as FFA President was coming to an end last year.

“I felt that I had the right credentials for this role as I have been involved with film funding for my whole professional life,” Niehuus explains. “I’ve always been closely following developments in film policy, and my work at the Medienboard meant that I have a very good network of contacts in the industry on both a national and international level.”

She points out that she finds it “particularly exciting” to be taking up this position at a point where the media and entertainment industry is undergoing a process of transformation. “It will be interesting to see how the FFA adapts its practices because many aspects of its regulations then serve as a blueprint for the other regional film funds in Germany. In this respect, the FFA acts as a pacemaker for future trends,” Niehuus suggests.

Her appointment as FFA President (which also entails serving as the chair of both the fund’s Administrative Board and Executive Committee) marks a new milestone in the film agency’s almost 60-year history since she is the very first woman to hold this office. “It was long overdue that a woman should be in this position,” Niehuus says. “It’s astonishing that the FFA has only had male dominated presidencies for such a long time.”

This state of affairs at the FFA had appeared to be all the more of an anomaly when one looks at the developments at the regional film funds where women had been appointed to the top positions over the years – from FFF Bayern and Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein through Film- undMedienstiftung NRW and Hessen Film & Medien to, most recently, Nordmedia, Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg and Kuratorium junger deutscher Film.

“We have had a lot of work to do since the inaugural sitting of the Administrative Board in mid-October,” Niehuus recalls. “The Board would normally have started work in February, but everything was then put back by the holding of the Bundestag general election and the new coalition government being formed.”

“But we’ve now had many sittings to pass the new guidelines for the various funding categories and have also been addressing the ongoing process of transformation within the industry. At the same time, we are working on reducing the amount of red tape because the FFA has so many areas of operations to cover.”

In fact, the number of the Berlin-based agency’s employees has swelled to around 120 since it is now also responsible for BKM’s jury-based cultural film funding programme and furthermore for administering the Federal Government’s two production incentive funding schemes German Film Fund (DFFF) and German Motion Picture Fund (GMPF).

This is in addition to the FFA’s core responsibilities under the auspices of the German Film Law (FFG) to provide support for feature films in all phases from script development, production and distribution as well as exhibition, film her­itage, film export and film education. “I’m looking forward to the work with the FFA’s Administrative Board as it has always been ‘film parliament’ bringing all of the different fields together – from production and exploitation through to the creatives – as a forum where one can discuss and argue before then reaching compromises and agreements,” Niehuus explains.

“It’s important for the future of the industry that we maintain this space so that we can demonstrate this sector’s relevance to the political establishment,” she adds. From the outset, it’s clear that there will be plenty to keep Niehuus occupied in her four years in the honorary position as the FFA’s President.

To begin with, the German film community is expecting that a resolution will soon be achieved on the question of whether international and local streaming and VOD services will be subject to binding legislation for an investment obligation similar to those practised in other European countries. Or whether the alternative – favoured by the current State Minister for Culture and Media Wolfram Weimer – of a voluntary commitment to invest into German production is the option becoming reality.

In addition, the coming months should see the publication of a study commissioned by the FFA in November from the Institute for Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte) to clarify the extent of any Nazi affiliations of the fund’s previous directors or committee members. This follows other historical studies which had been commissioned by the Berlinale, German Films (see report in GFQ 1/2024) and the German film industry’s umbrella organisation SPIO.

Meanwhile, the FFA’s international activities should be able to benefit from the extensive network of contacts that Niehuus had built up over the past 20 years at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. She was unwavering in her commitment to supporting German producers’ involvement in international co-production as well as being a partner in co-production development funds with Poland, Turkey and Russia. She also initiated artist-in-residence programmes with such cities as Paris, Thessaloniki, Mexico and Mumbai.

In fact, she had already become active on an international level during her time as the FFA’s Deputy Director between 1999 and 2004 when she represented Germany on the board of the Eurimages pan-European co-production fund and was then elected as its vice-president for two years from 2004.

“My time as President runs for the life of the German Film Law (FFG) – until 31 December, 2029 – so it’s a case of ‘after the amendment is before the amendment’,” Niehuus observes in a nutshell. Indeed, the new FFG had hardly made it to the statute books before the German film community was already turning its attention to the possible direction future legislation might need to take to address changes within the industry in the coming years.

And with her legal background and decades of experience as a film funder, Niehuus will play an important role in supporting the FFA’s management on deciding how the future FFG should be structured for the next decade from 2030.

Martin Blaney